Final Fantasy XIV: Lightrealm
by tslsmokey
Summary: KH3xFFXIV:Shadowbringers As the Warriors of Light reach the end of a harsh trial, their own world falls to the Heartless. Now as they reclaim their worlds fragments, they also get to help out Sora, because in all honesty, new threats have arrived and he's going to need all the help he can get. (REWRITE of The Kingdom of Hearts)
1. Chapter 1: A New Beginning

**A.N. Well… here it is! First chapter of the rewrite! Instead of starting after KH3, this begins right as it begins. Several elements have been reworked, hopefully for the better. And I hope you'll enjoy this.**

**I'd like to apologize for how long this took. I decided to wait for Shadowbringers and when it came out, I outright had to rewrite certain parts. I then went back and fixed a few more things up again.**

Palace of the Dead - Floor 200

Four adventurers touched down on the final floor of what had become known as the Palace of the Dead. An ever-changing labyrinth with an enchantment that stripped away all strength upon entering. Only those with the Aetherpool equipment granted by a child-like horned race of humans called the Padjal could even hope to survive.

"Everyone alright?" The first one called out. He was clothed mostly in red. A red feathered hat to cover his brown hair, a red duelist's tabard, even red boots. The only parts of his attire that weren't red were his white pants and black leather gloves. Clipped to his side was a rapier and a gem.

"Yeah. Iri, can you send a Benefic my way? My shield arm is still numb from where that Keeper hit it," the second one said. In its sheath was a sword and on his back was a shield. Covering the majority of his body was heavy armor, leaving his head exposed with a gold crown on it. Coming out of the back of the armor was a bushy, brown tail and on the top of his head were two brown cat ears.

The third adventurer shot him a glare. On the side of her white-haired head were curved horns, starting from where her ears would be and curving to the back of her head. Her robes were dark purple with constellations on them and on her head rested a similarly coloured and designed hat. On her back was a strange metallic contraption and clipped to her side was a strange sheath.

"It wouldn't be if you hadn't attempted to take it on as we were going to the exit!" She shouted at him.

"If I hadn't fought it then, it would've ambushed us!" He retorted.

Meanwhile, the first adventurer was moving over to the last one to touch down, "Do you wanna break them up, or should I?"

"I got this one," she said. On her blue-haired and blue-eared head, cat ears mind you, she had a black steeple hat. A small bandanna blocked off her mouth and her left eye and she had black robes on. On her back, slightly over her blue furred tail, she had a long staff. She strode over to the two arguing adventurers and immediately pressed their heads together. As she backed up to her chuckling comrade, she grinned at the wide eyes of the two, now kissing, adventurers.

"I mean, you always say kiss and make up. So you're now forcing that?" The first one asked.

"It works. Sometimes," she replied, "Come on. We're close to the exit now."

As she walked on to the last platform, the first adventurer shook his head, "What am I gonna do with you, R'idill?"

As the adventurers approached the exit of the Palace, they saw a red orb on a pedestal, not the boss they had been expecting.

"That's it?" The armored individual said, "That's what we risked life and limb for?"

"Apparently. Let's grab it." The red individual said, moving towards it. As he pulled it from the stand, he looked closer at its resting place, "That… looks like a keyhole. Why is there a keyhole on here?"

All of them staggered a bit as a sudden tremor shook the floor. As they regained their footing, the first adventurer looked up towards the ceiling. He pointed at a crack forming and drew his rapier with his right hand, the gem hovering above his left hand. All the other adventurers followed suit. A similar tremor occurred and after a third one, the crack exploded into a vortex of dark creatures flying through the air.

"What… what are those?" The armored individual shouted, swinging his sword and cleaving one that got too close in half.

"Don't know. The boss monsters?" The red individual called out.

"Not likely, they aren't focused on us," Iri said, unfolding the object on her back into a globe and sending bursts of starry energy at the horde, causing a few of them to burst into black smoke.

"Then where are they… Look out!" R'idill shouted, tackling the red individual as the swarm charged at him. Unfortunately, they were not aiming at him. The vortex itself funneled into the keyhole and the tremors grew even more fierce.

"What… just happened?" Iri asked, casting a quick spell to heal the group up.

"I don't know… Thanks R'idill," The red individual said, getting to his feet and pulling R'idill up, "We should get out of here. Where's that exit?"

"It just vanished. The second those things entered that keyhole, the exit vanished," The armored individual said, wobbling as another tremor hit.

In a flash, the keyhole turned completely black as dark magic started flying out of it. In seconds, the room had been covered. In a few minutes, it had spread to the Gridanian region. In ten minutes, the world itself was covered. And then, it shattered. The world broke apart, fragments of the Mothercrystal that sustained it flying into the dark unknown.

[hr]

?

A red gloved hand twitched as the adventurer came to. His hand scraping across paved stone as he pulled himself up, putting his hat back on in the process.

"Where… am I?" He wondered aloud, taking in his new location. Around him was a city, the architecture not unlike the Dravanian Hinterlands. But the skies were darkened with clouds and fireballs rained down upon the city. Something was very clearly attacking. As he turned his attention around the path he found himself in, it was somewhat like a garden with a small gazebo, he heard cries further down.

"Help! Somebody!"

Almost without any heed for his own safety, he hurried down the path, drawing his rapier in the process

As he approached the area, he saw a woman up on top of a pillar staring down at the beings at the base. They looked somewhat similar to those black creatures in the Palace. But where they were small. These things were slightly bigger with flames coming out of their head. With a flourish, a burst of red magic slammed into one, and a gust of wind blew another away. Waving his arms, six ethereal swords appeared and impaled another, and a further six swords appeared as he stabbed his rapier into the ground, stepped up, and flipped off it. With that motion, they flew through the air and plunged into the ground around the remaining enemies, obliterating them as he pulled his sword out of the ground.

As the last of the flaming enemies vanished, he heard footsteps from the steps he'd arrived from and saw a brown haired boy wielding a… Was that a giant key?! Followed by a giant dog and a duck. He'd have stood there dumbfounded for awhile more, had more enemies not warped in from bursts of darkness. As he turned and saw them, looking similar to the ones from the Palace but with a helmet on their head and more vicious looking claws, he sighed and turned his rapier back to them.

"Did someone spike my last meal?" He wondered, before hitting one of the new enemies with a tether and using it to pull himself to it and impale it.

[hr]

?

As R'idill woke up, her own hands scraped against dirt and grass. Opening her eyes she saw a forest around her, leading her to think she was back in the Black Shroud of Gridania. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Looking off in the distance, she saw a mansion. A brighter looking one than Haukke Manor, but in a bit more disrepair. As she reached down and picked up her own hat, she heard voices coming from behind her, voices that abruptly stopped when they came into view.

When she turned, she saw three people. Kids, really. There was a chubby boy with black hair, a headband and red shirt, with a very friendly smile. A lankier, blond haired boy with a vest on. And a brunette girl who had a strange, at least in R'idill's eyes, set of leggings on.

"Um… who are you?" The chubby boy asked.

R'idill tilted her head a bit, before giving her name. As she did so, a rustling drew her attention to the trees above. One did not get to be one of the greater adventurers in the Source without having a healthy sense of caution and paranoia.

"It's probably a squirrel," The lanky boy said, "I'm Hayner, this is Pence, and Olette." He said, motioning to each kid as he introduced them.

"Did you come here to investigate the mansion as well?" Pence asked. R'idill looked over her shoulder and shook her head.

"Where is this place?" She muttered under her breath. The three kids looked a bit shocked at hearing this but then Pence smiled a bit.

"Ohhh, You're like Sora aren't you?" he asked, getting a confused look for his troubles, "He's from another world too."

"Another… world? Yes, it would have to be that wouldn't it. Looks a bit too different from the Source to be a reflection and if it was one, there'd be an Ascian meddling here most likely." The last sentence was spoken under her breath. As she looked back at the kids, she got an idea, "What sort of things have been happening at that mansion?"

"Well, in the basement, there's this computer that belonged to a guy called Ansem the Wise. We found some interesting stuff on it but we couldn't finish looking at it. We were heading back to learn more." Pence said, as Hayner commented in the background, "Yeah, and you dragged us along too."

"It sounds like you're close friends," R'idill said, with a smile behind her impromptu face mask. Another sound drew her attention as the rustling returned, dropping blue monkeys with this strange mark on their chests down onto the branches of the trees. As they did so, a large thing appeared on the ground. The same mark was on its chest, it had a very unfitting helmet on its head and its body looked able to repel most physical attacks from the front. Arms could probably hurt as well. And all the enemies had glowing yellow eyes. She could outright see the malice in the monkey's eyes.

R'idill sighed as she unlimbered the staff from her back and motioned the kids to get behind her. The kids, to their credit, did not question this, and did as she bid.

As the eldritch magic charged on her staff, they heard her mutter, "Never can catch a break, can I?"

[hr]

"Now… I realize this is a bad look. But I swear, I don't know how I got here. I don't mean any harm. I'd really like to just get off this boat." G'dhap was not having a good day at all. His world vanished right before his eyes, he woke up on this strange boat… What was the third thing? Oh yes, a bunch of men and women were now pointing swords at him!

"Aye! You've said that about three times already!" Their supposed captain replied, with a grin on his face, "Matters not how you got here, unless ye can swim, yer not gonna be getting to shore for a while. Best just to enjoy the ride."

G'dhap looked back at the captain. Frankly, he had a very nice hat on, with a feather in its cap. Had a nice beard too. He'd seem almost affable, if it weren't for the fact, the crew was still pointing swords at him and the captain hadn't called them off. One of them reached for the sword on his back only to stop when G'dhap sent an ice-chilling glare at him.

"If I'm gonna be stuck on this ship with you all, I might as well start learning your names. As for me, You can call me…" He paused, could they even pronounce his name? "Tia."

The crew paused looking around at each other. As the captain chuckled, several spouts of water erupted around the boat as strange green things appeared on the deck. They almost looked like strange divers, if it weren't for the fact that their helmets were open and you could see slanted yellow eyes peering around. As one made to attack a pirate with its spear, it got sent flying off the deck by a shield. As the crew turned back to see the shield land on G'dhap's hand, he took a look around.

"Well? Isn't this the part where you repel the boarders?" He asked. Two of the crew immediately set to work attacking with the rest following shortly after. The captain cackled gleefully as he pulled out a strange pistol and shot two of the divers off.

As G'dhap jumped back in the fray, pulling his sword out as well, he muttered "I just have all the luck don't I"

[hr]

World of Darkness - Dark Lake

Riku was sent flying back. He and Mickey had journeyed to the World of Darkness to find any clues in their search for Aqua, perhaps even the elusive woman herself! What they expected, and got, was a lot of Heartless, attacking them at each turn.

Once they reached the lake, they had found themselves beset by a tower of shadows, simply called a Demon Tower. While they were succeeding in weakening it, it eventually managed to regroup and send both of them flying back.

The Tower paused, seeming to size them up, then took a dive towards Mickey.

As Riku called out to him, a strange light enveloped the mouse and yanked him backwards. As he landed, another light engulfed him, healing his wounds. Riku looked to where the light was coming from and found himself shocked.

Standing there was an elegant woman in starry robes and hat, carrying what looked like a globe surrounded by cards and charging up another spell. Where her ears would have been, there were horns instead. Emerging from behind her was a white, scaled tail. And all over her body, even near her blond hair, were patches of white scales as well. With a flourish, the spell hit Riku and healed his own wounds as well.

"Stay cautious!" She yelled, drawing a card from the sheath on her hip and looking at it, "Whatever that thing is, it's preparing for another attack." Her piercing yellow eyes looked over Riku, and then she tossed the card at him. Almost instantly he felt a power boost. "Now go!" She yelled again, "I'll keep you and him healed!"

As Mickey rejoined the fray, both he and Riku charged as the woman starting throwing her own spells at the Tower, muttering "G'dhap better not be getting up to any trouble."

**A.N. A cookie to those who get what each heartless, that wasn't explicitly named, was as well as the worlds each of the adventurers landed on. One of the things that needed rewriting was actually how some of the jobs performed, in particular, the Astrologian(cards). Originally, Lord of Crowns was a strict damage card. Now it just gives a damage boost. Actually… all the cards are just damage boosts now with more being given depending on the job and a different seal per card. Get three seals and you can divine more damage boosts for the party.**

**Anywho, I'm going to keep trying to write more, I just need to get the main classes used in this story up to 80 so I can at least understand what they are now capable of. Thank you for reading and I'll see you next time.**


	2. Chapter 2: To Fire and Sword

_Olympus - Thebes_

With one final swipe of his rapier, the last… thing, he really needed to get names for these things, was destroyed. The adventurer looked back to the party that had jumped in to help, and who was currently helping the lady down from the pillar. That brown-haired boy didn't look like much, but he had been a veritable lightning bolt, darting from one enemy to the next with quick strikes from that key. While they lacked power, they hit with precision and the fast strikes took down the smaller ones in a couple hits.

The dog managed to prove a deft hand with the shield. He'd thought that the shield lob that he'd seen G'dhap do was impractical, but this canine used it as a full-fledged weapon. Not only bashing enemies with it, but throwing it in ways that he'd not thought possible. Lastly, the duck proved to be a pretty good mage. He could see it being very welcome at the Thaumaturge's guild back home…

He paused for a moment, wondering what exactly had happened, before walking over as the lady made her exit.

"Not bad, you three," He said, "Haven't seen that sort of fighting before. What are your names?"

The three looked at each other and back to him, before the boy spoke up, "I'm Sora! This is Donald, and Goofy!" He gestured to each one in turn.

"Well then. My name is Josh Corvus. Now… Forgive me for being presumptuous, but you fought those things with some degree of familiarity. What are they?" the finally named Josh asked.

"Heartless. They grow from the darkness in people's hearts and cause problems all across the wo-" His mouth was suddenly covered by the duck, whispering something in his ear about the World Order or something.

"Interesting…" Josh turned from them, staring at the sky trying to puzzle something out, "Makes sense why they would have appeared back home… But why would they go after that… I think it looked like a keyhole?"

"A keyhole?! Where?" Josh jumped back as Donald was suddenly in his face.

"I'd advise you not to do that again, years of adventuring have left me jumpy. As to where I saw it… It was back home, right before a swarm of those creatures plunged into it. Next thing I know, I wake up here." Josh said, watching as the duck fell back to the ground.

"Oh…" Sora suddenly seemed to deflate, "I'm sorry."

"About what?" Josh was very confused.

"They stole your world's heart. But it'll return! All we have to do is beat the Heartless again and Xehanort!"

"You speak as though my home is gone," Josh said… before it finally hit, "It is, isn't it… Shit… Shit shit shit…"

He wandered off a little bit, his face pale as he rapidly tapped his ear, "Static… static… static… Come on, somebody pick up… Shit…" His arm fell to his side as he started breathing rapidly. "They'll be alright, they have to be. All the static means is that they aren't in range right now. We've faced worse than this… Haven't we?"

He walked back over, "You, Sora."

"Yes?" Sora snapped to attention.

"You're going across these… they are worlds aren't they? Completely different worlds? To fight these Heartless and this… Xehanort?"

"Yes?"

"Well… If you'll let me, I'd like to come with. Whatever those things did to my world, they will pay. And if there's any chance that my friends are still alive…" He broke off. Sora reached up and patted his shoulder.

"Hey, they'll be alright. Trust me!" He said with a grin.

"Somehow, beyond all logic, I think I do. Lead on, kid," Josh said, as they turned to proceed.

As he moved forward, he noticed that Sora had vanished. His unasked question was swiftly answered as a statue crashed through a wall and Donald's voice echoed from the new hole, "Tell me you meant to do that."

_**BGM - To Fire and Sword - FFXIV Shadowbringers**_

They soon slid down a hill and more Heartless appeared as they came to a pit filled with fire. As Sora jumped forward, Josh started swiping his rapier, sending shockwaves straight to the flying Heartless. It didn't take long for Sora to move to climb a wall and take on the Heartless on top of it as Josh started firing spells again and his swords.

When the fight ended, Sora hopped down on the other side leaving Josh a bit… stranded.

"Come on! You can do it!" he shouted from his perch on the far side.

Josh stared at the pit, then at the wall. After a minute he took a deep breath and ran at the wall. To give him credit, he made it halfway. And then promptly fell into the pit to Sora's shocked cry. A few seconds later, a charred glove clamped on the edge, with Josh pulling himself up immediately after.

"That… was not fun." He grumbled, dusting off the soot on his clothing.

"Are you alright?" Sora asked.

"Yes, I've been through hotter fires before. But that was unpleasant. How likely is it that we're going to have to do that again?"

"The fire or the running?"

"Yes."

"Probably very likely."

"Great. I'll get used to it then. Right, I'm good. Lead on."

Sora gave him a concerned look before moving on. It didn't take long for them to come across civilians being attacked by the Heartless. It also didn't take long for their combined forces to outright obliterate the Heartless. As Sora spoke with the civilians and got them out, Josh took a moment to look around.

"Hey Donald, Goofy. Over there. Is that someone watching us?" He motioned towards a far building where he thought he saw someone. Goofy looked over there and shrugged while Donald tried to get a better look.

"I don't know… Maybe?" Donald said.

"Might be my imagination. Never mind." Josh said, "You good Sora?" He asked as the boy approached again.

"Yeah, let's keep going!"

They continued forward, taking on the Heartless and saving the civilians. Josh noted how often Sora scaled the walls to get extra stuff at the top of the walls. And a few occasions he saw Heartless come flying off. He also caught on that Donald and Goofy were scaling them as well. He tried to scale as well. He really did. He just couldn't run up them and was stuck climbing normally. By the time he reached the top, Sora would have finished his search and would be hopping down, leaving him to drop down.

As they continued moving forward, they came across a path of fire. After a few moments, Sora and Donald hopped on Goofy's shield as Goofy pushed it forward and hopped on, sending them sliding through the flames, completely safe from harm. With a slightly twitching eye, Josh pulled out a small vial, chugged its contents and started walking through the flames after them. It stung, but the potion helped matters a bit. He hoped they wouldn't run across many more, if only because the recipe had been lost and he didn't have many of these potions.

He announced his presence by firing his ethereal swords at a group of the archer Heartless that Sora and the others were facing. It didn't take him long to take the Heartless out and for them to keep moving, minus a small glare from Josh. It didn't take long for trouble to find them… again.

They heard crumbling and dashed into the area to see a crumbling building with screaming inside. Despite his misgivings, Josh followed the rest of the party into the building to see civilians frozen in terror and… one man holding up the building.

"What?" He breathed in shock.

"Sora!" The man shouted, "get these people out of here!"

And of course, as he said that, more Heartless appeared.

"Sora, do as he says," Josh called out, flipping his rapier and causing it to vanish as a long staff appeared in his hands. His outfit also changed in a flash of blue light. No more was he in his red dueling gear. Instead a black hat appeared on his head, with an eyepatch over his right eye and his robes changed to black robes. "I can handle this. Now let's see how much I learned."

_**BGM - From Fear to Fortitude - Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn**_

With a quick focus, a circle filled with intersecting lines appeared under his feet and a swirling blizzard hit the Heartless, drawing their focus to him. A small sigil appeared in front of him and quickly vanished as he then cast two more of the blizzards, stopping them in their tracks. Redirecting his focus, he sent a storm of lightning into a group sneaking up on him before casting a small series of explosions onto one of the Heartless, firing off a couple more large Flares into the first group he hit, destroying them.

He noticed the lines under him vanish as he sent another swirling blizzard at the second group, noticing a third group warp in.

"The buggers are determined. I'll give them that. Still, it looks like I'm remembering things. Like this." He mumbled, sending a swirl of ice energy into himself and repeating the trick before sending another lightning storm to the third group.

"Alright… Foul!" He intoned as he fired a mass of dark energy into the center of the Heartless, destroying a good portion of them and leaving a small amount left to mop up, which only took a few more fire spells. By this time, Sora had managed to take the last of the civilians out of the building.

"Come on, time to go!" He called. Josh nodded and started running out.

_**BGM End**_

"Hercules!" Sora called… right as the building collapsed with the man underneath the rubble. "No!"

Sora looked at the ground, not able to believe what had just happened. Josh wasn't quite sure how to respond and simply gave a comforting pat on the back.

"Take your time kid. I'll be just up ahead when you're ready," He said, letting him have time to process.

As he walked on ahead, he took a look at the city, noting the smoke plumes had died down, but there were still some left that needed dealing with. As he stared, he got the feeling of a presence and turned to his right to see another man standing next to him.

"Man, that's a lot of destruction," The man said. He had dark, spiky hair with a red headband on. His pants, for lack of a better term, looks more like yellow and grey rags. On his left arm, he had some greaves and a strange black tattoo on his torso. And finally, in his right hand, he had a large sword. A sword that reasonably should not be wielded one hand, but his build made it seem like he would have no issues doing so.

Almost as if sensing the tension, he said, "Take it easy. Not here to fight. Yet at least. Just scouting out the competition."

"Competition?" Josh muttered.

"Yep, you ain't the only one out of their world. And there's folks who don't want that crystal back."

"Are you saying you're an Ascian, or affiliated with them?"

"Not a chance. Don't even know what that is. But you think the rock had only one enemy? Heh, that's wishful thinking. And put the weapon down or I will hit you." He said, glancing over to Josh, who had switched back into his red attire and had his rapier out again. Josh grudgingly sheathed the weapon.

"That's better," the man said. "Now look. I'm one of the few who're gonna actually treat you with some decency. The others, some just want a good fight, others have completely lost it. Not exactly a tight group, eh?"

"And what is your group even trying to do?"

"That's actually not my role to tell. I ain't the leader and frankly, I still don't know. But it ain't a good idea to try to attack the guy who brought you back to life. So I follow them for now."

He cast a glance over his shoulder, "Looks like we gotta wrap this up. Sorry in advance, but I gotta keep up appearances." Before Josh could say anything, the man turned and buried a fist in his stomach. After a second of intense pain, Josh flew backwards and bowled over… Hercules?

The strange man vanished as Josh got to his feet and helped up Hercules, leaving no trace of his existence except the small slit in the ground where he had been and the feeling of a fist in Josh's gut.

"Alright, level with me… How are you alive?" Josh gasped out, still hunched over in pain.

"Being the son of a god has some perks," Hercules said, helping him stay up.

Sora also looked troubled, though for a different reason. Turns out, while Josh was having his talk with the strange man, one of Sora's enemies had spoken with him and left on a very cryptic note. Apparently, this was one of the man's normal traits. Didn't make things any less suspicious. Regardless, they had to continue on. There was one last area they had to clear. A swift slide down the hill to one of the enclosed areas, and bursting through a weak wall revealed the last Heartless, a large giant, terrorizing the town center. With five people working against it, and Sora pulling a giant ship out of thin air to blast it with water(seriously what the hell?!), the Heartless fell in quick order.

Hercules checked in with the flying horse, woman, and… weird… goat human thing that flew down. It didn't take long for him to get them to agree to stay safe as he rejoined the group. Josh had been staring with a twitching eye at the floating Moogle hologram, which stood there with a sweat drop on its face. It took Sora calling him to get him to return as they headed out of the city.

A couple hours later, they reached what Hercules called the base of Mount Olympus. As they moved onward, Hercules noted that the river wasn't usually this active, and indeed the waters were rushing in a rather dangerous manner. The reasoning behind it was revealed shortly after Heartless burst out of the river. More watery ones burst from the river itself, and Air Pirates descended from the sky, only to get fried by a burst of lightning and a red flower following it. Sora managed to take down the water Heartless with some blasts of fire and help from Donald.

The scenario repeated itself, but more water Heartless instead of the Air Pirates. Once again, they fell rather quickly and Sora's attention was drawn to something in the clearing as the river died down.

"Hey, what's that?" He wondered as he walked towards it. Josh caught sight of it as Sora got close to it. A crystal, of pure blue, and from it he felt pure light. More to the point, the sensation was just like… Home? As he saw Sora reach out to touch it, he called out.

"Sora, don't!" Sora turned around, his hand brushing the crystal as the boy wondered what was going on. And that touch was more than enough to trigger it. The crystal began flashing rapidly and light began flowing out from it. The ground began cracking and the mountain began to rumble as the crystal glowed brighter and brighter. Under their feet, the ground began shifting from grass and rock to blue crystal and metal. The mountain began shifting as the light impacted it. And soon, the light grew to be too blinding for anyone to see and they shielded their eyes.

When the light died down finally, and they unshielded their eyes, all they could do was stare in amazement.

"What happened?" Donald wondered.

"Where are we?" Goofy asked.

As Josh stared at the sight that was now in front of them, he knew exactly where they were. As the crystals covered the ground they were on, a metal plate extended in front of them. Assorted floating fish hovered over the ground leading up to the mountain. Except there wasn't a mountain now. Instead a gigantic wrecked metal object rose in front of them, with a scaled skeleton coiled around it.

"This is the wreck of the Agrius. But how? How did it get here?"

* * *

_Twilight Town - The Forest_

"Flare!" The woman called out, obliterating the last of the Heartless in a giant fireball. As the smoke cleared, she put the staff back on her back and gave a heavy exhale.

"That wasn't even a workout. What were those things anyways?" She muttered to herself.

"Excuse me?" She heard behind her and she turned around, seeing the three she'd protected.

"Oh. Are you all alright?" She asked, searching them with a critical eye.

"Y-yes! Thank you!" Pence said

"Hey, who are you anyways?" Hayner asked.

"Hmm… Call me R'idill. Tell me, what were those things?" She asked, taking a gaze around the forest.

"They're called the Heartless," Pence said, "They're made from the darkness in people's hearts. But they haven't been around for awhile."

"I see…" R'idill mused, "Tell you what, how about I accompany you at least until you are done at this… mansion, was it?" she asked, getting a nod from the trio. "Right, the mansion. Better to be prepared in case those things attack again, right?"

"Hey, where'd Olette go?" Hayner asked as Pence gave another nod, the question was answered shortly after as Olette ran back up from the mansion.

"Guys! There's something odd in front of the mansion!" She said, panting with her hands on her knees.

"Odd?" R'idill asked. Olette simply waved her hand, motioning to follow her. It didn't take long for them to arrive at the mansion's entrance. And sitting in front of it was a blue crystal.

"Now what have we here?" R'idill muttered, kneeling in front of it. "Feels like the light of the Mothercrystal."

"The Mothercrystal?" Pence asked.

R'idill seemingly didn't hear him, or if she did she gave no response. She reached out and placed a hand on it. And in response, the crystal began flashing rapidly. The ground rumbled, and the mansion trembled. As light engulfed the trio, the mansion began shifting to take a more… ominous appearance.

"What in the seven hells?" R'idill gasped as her eyes recovered from the burst of light. She recognized the mansion. How could she not? After all… Haukke Manor was one of their more iconic fights… and they had to do it twice!

**A.N. Apologies for this taking so long, schoolwork and constantly getting sidetracked with games does not help! I need to replay KH3 as well so there's that little bit. Anyways! One of the first new antagonist has made an appearance and the replacement for the portals and podiums has appeared! And it's a lot more dangerous to the ordinary person. Here's hoping you enjoy, and hoping that the next one doesn't take so long to write.**


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